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andresdecide's avatar
andresdecide
10 months ago
Solved

Dragon Age Inquisition Won't Launch

So I reinstalled the game after some years away and on a new PC. It seems Origin doesn't exist anymore and the EA app handles all now. But for the life of me I can't do anything to launch Dragon Age ...
dragon age inquisition
  • EA_Shepard's avatar
    EA_Shepard
    9 months ago

    @andresdecide Hey, honestly I am not sure why unless the issue with the ISP was blocking a connection which some have before, and when systems were restored on their end an update happened. I had not changed anything on my end to get it to work. DAI is doesn't have an online access or anything so besides replacing the entire game, no changes here would have been made to resolve it.

holger1405's avatar
holger1405
Hero+
9 months ago

@andresdecide 

  • Make sure EA app and Steam/Epic are closed.
  • Press the Windows key and "R" at the same time.
  • Type or copy and paste "%ProgramData%\Electronic Arts\EA Services" (without the quotes) into the new Window > ENTER
  • Delete the "License" folder.
  • Test
andresdecide's avatar
andresdecide
9 months ago

I followed the steps and I either get an infinte "Launching game" or and error code that's always a different number...

  • andresdecide's avatar
    andresdecide
    9 months ago

    By the way, this is the number of my latest error report: a4f54386-7377-4150-8920-cb1003e3cbca

    Still can't launch the game...

  • InkFromAStone's avatar
    InkFromAStone
    9 months ago

    I am following this closely, because I just got the game and 50 hours later it refuses to admit I clicked to open it.

  • holger1405's avatar
    holger1405
    Hero+
    9 months ago

    @andresdecide 

    The fact that troubleshooting the EA application is not helping in your case indicates that there is a problem on your system that is preventing the game from running.

    There are Windows Update errors and a LiveKernelEvent error in your DxDiag, which indicates a hardware error.



    1. Hit Windows key and X.
    2. Choose either “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Command prompt (Administrator),” or "Windows Terminal (Administrator)", whichever option is offered.
    3. Inside PowerShell, CMD or Terminal enter “DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Checkhealth” without quotes. > ENTER.
    4. If errors are found, notify us. If no errors were found reaped steps 1 & 2.
    5. Inside PowerShell, CMD or Terminal enter “DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth” without quotes. > ENTER.
    6. The system will start validating soon. If it throws an error, please list it here.
    7. After it reaches 100% reaped steps 1 & 2
    8. Inside PowerShell, CMD or Terminal enter “sfc /scannow” without quotes > ENTER.
    10. Post the message you receive at the end of the processes here.

  • andresdecide's avatar
    andresdecide
    9 months ago
    @holger1405 Alright, followed those steps again. DISM reported no errors on the check and completed the restore successfully... SFC said "Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations." and I add that the first time that I followed these specific steps, SFC did find problems and resolved them, creating a log file that is now lost I imagine since I've done the sfc scan twice since then (both with no issues to report)...

    And it's still not working... I have also used Revo to uninstall both the EA App and the game and reinstalled exclusively using the EA App, to no avail... My latest report ID: ef7aef46-874c-47c6-9d93-6cbc9dc6372b
  • holger1405's avatar
    holger1405
    Hero+
    9 months ago

    @andresdecide 

    Please preform a clean boot and test the Game in clean boot mode.

    In clean boot:
    - Make sure the "EABackgroundService" remains enabled under point 3 in the guide.
    - Make sure your virus scanner and other security software and also Afterburner and similar software is disabled.
    - Make sure any CORSAIR/Azus/Razer software is disable or deinstalled and that your GPU & CPU are not overclocked.
    - Make sure only your Mouse and keyboard are connected to the PC.

    If that also don't works:

    • Follow this manual to the letter to cleanly uninstall all NVIDIA components.
    • Install the graphics driver. > Go online.
    • Test.
  • andresdecide's avatar
    andresdecide
    9 months ago
    @holger1405 Clean boot didn't work, unsurprisingly since I tried it before with utmost attention to detail...

    I cleanly uninstalled all NVIDIA components, following the steps to the letter. Didn't work...

    I'm thinking something is actively stopping the EA App from opening the game, but I can't figure out what since there are no security reports anywhere and I tried disabling everything that can be disabled on Windows Defender...

    My latest report ID: b42b22f6-0ac7-4979-8ba7-c8350bd51792
  • andresdecide's avatar
    andresdecide
    9 months ago
    @holger1405 Two more data points:

    I have installed several other games to see if they're working or not, but all of them work. From not so demanding like league of legends to very demanding like Cyberpunk 2077 or Diablo 4.

    I have also tried to install several different games from the EA App (My EA library), to see if they don't work either. But every single one works, with a notable exception:

    Dragon Age 2 took a while to launch at first, but it did and even restored some save files I haven't seen in a decade. Sometimes the app will say "launching game" for a long time before launching the game, sometimes DA2 launches immediately, but it will ALWAYS get stuck in "launching game" forever after a failed DAI attempt.

    Also worth noting that the directory path Bioware/Dragon Age 2/etc got created, while there is none for Inquisition.

    Perhaps these details bring some light onto something?
  • EA_Shepard's avatar
    EA_Shepard
    Icon for Community Manager rankCommunity Manager
    9 months ago

    @andresdecide I took a look at all the steps you have taken and wanted to ask when you did a clean boot, did you also do safe mode with networking? 

    When you created a new Admin account, did you give it admin privileges? 

    Past Windows Defender, are there any other security programs installed?

  • andresdecide's avatar
    andresdecide
    9 months ago
    @EA_Shepard I tried to do safe mode with networking, but the networking part never works, so the app can't launch on safe mode. The steps online seem outdated for Win 11 Pro or something. I'll try again today with the boot options before windows starts...

    I did give the new account admin privileges before testing. I do not run any aditional security program, only windows defender (which was thoroughly disabled for testing several times).

    By all accounts, the game should at least attempt to launch, but it doesn't. The inquisition excecutable only appears on the task manager for a fraction of a second and only when I try to launch the game directly. Another excecutable opens named ActivationUI, it disappears and then nothing happens or the EA app gives me an error code. Perhaps something is wrong with my license activation process ever since I got the game from Epic and now there's a conflict between my EA license and my Epic license on EA's servers? I unlinked my Epic account from my EA account and I uninstalled the game and app with Revo and since then I've been installing/testing exclusively from the EA side of things...

    I'll now go test safe mode and creating a local account again...
  • EA_Shepard's avatar
    EA_Shepard
    Icon for Community Manager rankCommunity Manager
    9 months ago

    @andresdecide Gotcha. So with only Windows Defender, and it simply not even attempting to launch, my guess after all the things you listed, is that something is blocking it, or when you launch it, it doesn't recognize where the game is. I.E. you have the EA app and the game on different drives or a different location! That may not always be the case.

    These have been tested, yes?

    No additional firewalls set up, or /modem/router security set up?

    To see if your firewall is blocking a website, app, or port on Windows, go to Windows Firewall > Advanced Settings and check your Outbound rules. The game could have been blocked accidentally from launching.

  • andresdecide's avatar
    andresdecide
    9 months ago
    @EA_Shepard Yes, I tried installing the game on a different drive, on the same drive and even on the same folder as the App, it didnt work. Yet my other games on different drives and now Dragon Age 2 on the same drive as DAI works. I have also tried:

    - Tried Clean Boot three times now. None worked.
    - Used different compatibility combinations for both the EA app and the game, plus every single excecutable file on both. None worked.
    - Just tried Safe Mode again, but networking just doesn't work. Safe Mode disables the driver for my ethernet adapter, disables the troubleshooter and not even doing a network reset will work. Safe mode works, but it just doesn't have internet.
    - Just tried a new windows account again, made sure it has all admin privileges. Game still fails to launch (new report ID: 58e5ecda-0d3c-4fdf-9e73-0fa35f241afb)
    - Changed UAC controls to max, no change in the situation. Changed them to minimum, nothing (new report ID: d26cdf26-c042-4adb-9352-8acfe7090757).

    I also checked the firewall rules. There's no sign of blockage, in fact the EA app and Dragon Age inquisition appear all green and allowed...

    I was thinking it's trying to restore my saves from the cloud? But I assume the game would open first and ask me to log in to the Dragon Age servers or maybe even create the folder where the settings and saves go, but those folders don't exist yet...
  • andresdecide's avatar
    andresdecide
    9 months ago
    @EA_Shepard Quick update on Safe Mode: Managed to make networking work by downgrading my ethernet driver. But the EA App fails to open and even trying to manually start the EA background service results in an error message saying that service cannot run in Safe Mode... Felt pointless to test safe mode then... In any case, the error while trying to open the EA app forced an update that apparently I didn't have earlier today. Tested again on normal boot (after cheking my app was updated) but nothing...

    I also cleanly uninstalled Inquisition again using Revo and CCleaner later, didn't work. Repaired the game then, still the same result... No game launching...
  • holger1405's avatar
    holger1405
    Hero+
    9 months ago

    @andresdecide 

    Do you have other EA games that work?

    Did you use Mods with DAI?

    Move the "Dragon Age Inquisition" folder out of your "Documents\Bioware" folder. (Preferable to your Decktop) > Test.

  • andresdecide's avatar
    andresdecide
    9 months ago
    @holger1405 Sorry about the last reply, somehow it got published without writing anything... Yes, as I have explained before, I tested a bunch of EA games that work on the EA App with basically no issue, it's just Inquisition that doesn't launch.

    I used mods on DAI 6 years ago or so. On this PC I haven't used any mods, they're all fresh installs with no mods or addons whatsoever...

    The Dragon Age Inquisition folder that's supposed to be under "Documents/Bioware" does not exist. It's not there, the game never launched to create it. It does not exist, it isn't anywhere on the PC I have already searched for it...
  • andresdecide's avatar
    andresdecide
    9 months ago
    @holger1405 And I'd like to add that all of my EA games work EXCEPT when I try to open them after a failed DAI launch... If I first try to open Inquisition and it naturally fails, the issue is so pervasive that no other game will open (will instead stay on "preparing game" or "launching game" forever) until I restart the EA App... The EA app is restarted and then I can launch my games normally, but Inquisition will refuse to launch forever...

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